He wrote fantastic books set in a silly, fantastic world, but the stories resonate so strongly with the real world...

His books changed how I think about all sorts of things.

If you've never read any of his works before, and would like to, then I suggest The Reaper Man. It's one of his early works, and you might not like the entirety of it, but some parts of it have stayed with me ever since I first read it.

It is about Death. The fellow in the black robes, with a scythe. He got fired. New policy, see - they want more efficiency. As the book goes, he tries his hand on a new field. In agriculture, as a matter of fact.

"What can the harvest hope for, if not for the care of the Reaper Man?" -DEATH

Just like you said, he is still the favourite author when the dead are included. It's strange how a man I never met gave me so much, me and so many others. If not a parent, then he was at the very least a teacher.